Ducks right wing Jakob Silfverberg, who leads the team with 16 goals in 51 games this season, has agreed to a five-year contract, an NHL source confirmed to the Southern California News Group on Wednesday. The deal can’t be officially signed until after Monday’s NHL trade deadline because of salary-cap issues that would delay a formal announcement. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

ST. PAUL, Minn. — It’s been more than a month since Ducks general manager Bob Murray said he would try to sign Jakob Silfverberg to a contract extension by season’s end, keeping the 28-year-old Swede under contract and off the market before he could become an unrestricted free agent July 1.

Silfverberg and the Ducks have an agreement on a five-year contract, an NHL source said Wednesday. The deal can’t be officially signed until after Monday’s NHL trade deadline because of salary-cap issues that would delay a formal announcement, though.

Murray was tending to a family matter Wednesday and could not be reached for comment. He is expected to rejoin the Ducks for Friday’s game against the Calgary Flames, the second stop on a four-game trip. The Ducks did not practice Wednesday, taking a scheduled day off.

Silfverberg has sizzled recently, scoring four times in as many games, including the only goal the Ducks would need in their 4-0 victory Tuesday over the Minnesota Wild, their third win in four games since Murray fired Randy Carlyle and assumed the coaching duties himself.

Silfverberg leads the Ducks with 16 goals in 51 games.

The Ducks could have attracted considerable trade interest in Silfverberg, a strong two-way player who Murray praised last month as “one of the ones right now that is standing up and being counted” during a franchise-record 12-game losing streak that led to Carlyle’s eventual ouster Feb. 10.

It’s expected that Silfverberg’s new contract will have an average annual value of a little more than $5 million, a significant raise from the $3.75 million he’s earned during the course of the four-season, $15-million deal he signed with the Ducks as a restricted free agent Aug. 7, 2015.

Because of so-called salary-cap tagging issues, the Ducks must clear salary-cap space before they can officially sign Silfverberg. Murray could make trades Monday that would enable him to create enough space to sign Silfverberg. The Ducks are currently about $1 million over the $79-million cap.

If not, he’ll have to wait until March 1, when teams get a 10-percent tagging bump.

Elliott Teaford covers the Anaheim Ducks for the Orange County Register and the Southern California News Group. He covered the Ducks for 12 years, including the Stanley Cup season, for the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze before returning to the beat in 2018 for SCNG. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.